Most runners focus on two things to get faster: running more, and running harder. But there's a third factor that often matters just as much — how efficiently your body uses the energy it has. That's running economy.
What Is Running Economy?
Running economy is essentially your fuel efficiency as a runner – but unlike fueling a car, it's not simply about how much you eat. It's measured by how much oxygen your body consumes to sustain a given pace, expressed as millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per kilometre (ml/kg/km). The lower the number, the more efficient you are.
This matters because oxygen consumption is how we predict energy usage. A runner with good economy uses less oxygen – and therefore less energy – to run at a certain speed. A runner with poor economy demands more of both to cover exactly the same ground.
It measures how much energy your body uses to hold a given pace. A runner with good economy uses less energy to run at a certain speed. A runner with less efficient economy burns through more to do exactly the same thing.
What Makes Someone An Economical Runner?
It's easy to assume running economy is just about form – your posture, your arm swing, your stride. Form matters, but it's only one piece of a bigger picture. Running economy is the result of a number of factors working together:
Layer | What it means | Can you train it? |
Metabolic Efficiency (Your engine) | How efficiently your body produces energy at a cellular level | Yes – through consistent running over time |
Tendon Elasticity (Springs) | How well your tendons store and return energy with each stride | Yes – through strength work, plyometrics and running drills |
Running Form (Technique) | How cleanly and efficiently your body moves | Yes – through running drills |
You don't need exceptional genetics to become a more economical runner – you just need the right kind of consistent practice.
Can You Train Running Economy?
Your natural physiology, tendon stiffness and muscle fibre composition do play a role in your running economy. But a large part of running economy is trainable – and you don't necessarily need to run more miles to improve it. That's where running drills come in.
How Do You Measure Running Economy?
The most accurate measurement is done in a sports science lab, where you run on a treadmill at set speeds while your oxygen consumption is tracked via a mask. This can give you a precise ml/kg/km figure.
That said, you don't need a lab to track progress. Many modern GPS watches estimate running efficiency through metrics like stride length, vertical oscillation, and ground contact time. These won't give you a true ml/kg/km number, but tracked over time they can tell you whether you're moving in the right direction.
How Drills Improve Running Economy
Engine (metabolic efficiency): Drills repeat the movement patterns of running in isolation. Done consistently, those patterns become more automatic – your muscles fire in the right sequence without conscious effort, even when you're fatigued. Over time, this neuromuscular efficiency contributes to how economically your body produces energy for running.
Springs (tendon elasticity): When your foot lands, your Achilles tendon compresses like a spring and releases that stored energy on push-off. Drills – particularly ankle drills – train that spring to be more reactive, giving you more propulsion with every stride.
Movement (running mechanics): Small inefficiencies like overstriding, low knee drive, and arms crossing the body, waste energy across thousands of steps per run. Drills isolate each part of the running cycle so you can correct them deliberately, until the efficient version becomes your natural default.
Running more can improve your fitness — but only if your body can handle it. For injury-prone runners, pushing mileage beyond what you can tolerate often does more harm than good. The smarter approach is training within your optimal mileage range and using drills and cross-training to fill the gaps. Drills improve your mechanics, tendon stiffness, and movement patterns in ways that extra miles simply can't. You need both elements.
Drills vs. Plyometrics: What's the Difference?
Drills and plyometrics are not the same thing, they work on different things:
Drills are about technique: They're slow, deliberate, and controlled. The goal is to teach your body the correct movement patterns for running by breaking down and exaggerating parts of the running stride – one isolated piece at a time. Think of them as practice. Low impact, low effort, done before every run.
Plyometrics are about power. Exercises like box jumps, bounding, and jump squats train your muscles and tendons to produce explosive force. They are higher effort.
When Should I Include Drills?
The good news is that drills are accessible to every runner, at every level, starting from day one. No gym is required, just take 10 minutes before your run.
Takeaways
If you're new to running, it's easy to think that getting better simply means running more. And while consistency matters, the way you move can matter just as much.
The good news is that as a beginner, your running economy has enormous room to improve. Your body is still learning the movement, which means every drill session is teaching it something valuable. You're not correcting years of bad habits, you're building good ones from scratch. That's a real advantage.
You don't need to run far, run fast, or spend hours in the gym to become a more efficient runner. Ten minutes of drills before your run, done regularly, is enough to start. Focus on moving well, stay consistent, and let the fitness follow.